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Ten Talks To Girls 
On Health 



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COKRIGHT DEPOStT. 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS 
ON HEALTH 



FOR CLUB LEADERS 

by 
AUGUSTA RUCKER, M. D. 

DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF HEALTH, BUREAU OF SOCIAL 
EDUCATION, NATIONAL BOARD, Y. W. C. A. 



THE WOMANS PRESS 
NEW YORK CITY 

1921 



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Copyright 1921 by 

The National Board of the Young Women's 

Christian Associations of the United 

States of America 

New York 



Printed in U. S. A. 



AUG 22 (921 

"©C1A620740 



I 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS 
ON HEALTH 

FOR THE USE OF CLUB LEADERS 
NOT TECHNICALLY TRAINED 

1. Pulling Uphill or Running Down: Nine 

Signboards that Direct to a Success- 
ful Climb 14 

2. A Good Food-Tube: A Bad Food-Tube. 22 

3. Teeth: The Best Friend of the Indi- 

vidual 30 

4. Foods: The Source of Joyful Work and 

Play 42 

5. Exercise: An Almost Forgotten Neces- 

sity for the Climb 52 

6. Hidden Traps on the Road to Success: 

Infections 60 

7. The Feet on Which We Stand or Fall 

in the Climb, and Posture Which Aids 

or Retards Us 70 

8. Drugs: The Most Misleading Sign on 

the Way 78 

9. Love and Health: The Final Signboard 

for a Real Personality 84 

10. World Health: The Value of Human 
Beings Is Above That of Material 

Things 92 

The Health Library 98 



A FOREWORD 

To the workers who are demonstrating to 
the individual that health is essential to suc- 
cessful living. 

WE have an urgent and a stimulating task, 
the group of us who are earnestly work- 
ing for the health of the world. We have 
got to put into the mind of every individual an 
appreciation of health — an appreciation of the 
beauty of it from the physical point of view and 
of the joy of it from the mental point of view. 
We have got to build up a new social attitude 
based on a just valuation of health as both men- 
tal and physical well-being; for there can be no 
physical health apart from the mental, and no 
moral stability apart from physical and mental 
health. The measure of our success in this work 
is not merely the absence of disease, but the de- 
velopment of all the latent vitality of the individ- 
ual. The question is: How are we going to 
accomplish this? The only way is by getting be- 
hind the conduct of our young women and by 
leading them in the formation of health habits 
that will carry on as future years unfold. The 
kind of health which we must teach is not just 
something to be praised, but something to be 
lived. 

That the appreciation of health in this sense 
is not general among us is shown by the draft 
examination of men in the prime of life. What 
[S] 



A FOREWORD 

the examination of our women would show, I am 
afraid, would be far worse. With their absurd 
ways of eating and dressing, their lack of exer- 
cise except for dancing, their purchased recrea- 
tions involving little physical or mental effort of 
their own, their usual reading consisting of 
sentimental stories in the popular magazines — 
with all these wrong health habits so common 
among the women of our country, they certainly 
could demonstrate no greater realization of health 
than that exhibited by the men in the draft ex- 
amination. 

During the war it had begun to look as if the 
individual woman had been brought to realize 
there was no place for her unless she became a 
producer. The parasites were almost eliminated 
and all became workers. And now, after hav- 
ing had a taste of freedom in productive work, 
they are actually going back to parasitism and 
self-inflicted bondage, as can be seen to-day in 
the return to extreme styles, to the hobble skirt 
and to the high-heeled, pointed shoe. Women 
are not entirely alone in this. Men from . the 
trenches have abandoned the sensible shoe last 
and gone back to pointed shoes and other styles 
which work against health and mental freedom 
and really mean bondage. What are we going 
to do, then, that we may not fail in placing the 
right valuation on vigor, strength and endurance, 
and their combination with happiness as essen- 
tial to the making of a real personality? 

[6] 



A FOREWORD 

Following the war there arose a demand for 
military training as a means of promoting physi- 
cal health. But military training cannot lead to 
the health of the individual, because it strives for 
discipline of the body at the expense of mental 
integration and character building. Physical 
health cannot be gained at the expense of mental 
health, and it is nothing less than the health of 
the whole individual for which we are working. 
Building for individual health is the first step 
toward building for world health. 

Perhaps because we have preached through 
the years that health is a debt we owe the com- 
munity and its prospective children, people's ears 
have grown deaf, as they are accustomed to do, 
to an over-familiar appeal. This has doubtless 
had some effect in diminishing the popular appre- 
ciation of health. Teachings to ignore or mortify 
the flesh have also had an unfortunate effect. 
They have failed to make clear the truth that 
"the Word became flesh" and have kept the in- 
dividual from understanding that the flesh is 
spirit and the spirit is flesh. There are people who 
look upon health as something gross. You may 
have heard the expression "disgustingly healthy !" 
Now, is it not time for us to see, clearly and 
honestly, that there is no successful living for 
the individual unless health is secured and main- 
tained as the basis of all other equipment for 
life? In the light of present-day psychology, a 

[7] 



A FOREWORD 

healthy individual is one whose body is directed 
and controlled by a healthy mind. 

Instead of presenting health in our teachings 
as a burdensome debt, can we not show it to 
the individual as something beautiful to attain 
and to keep, something that makes the individual 
rich enough to bestow good gifts, something that 
gives her personality and starts her on the road 
to freedom? 

Here is an example of what I mean by health, 
the beauty of it, the poise of it, the force of it, 
the strength of it, and the joy of it. While walk- 
ing down one of the attractive avenues of New 
York I became aware of a pair of handsome, 
well-shod feet approaching me. As my eyes 
traveled upward from the feet I beheld, swing- 
ing along, a comfortably dressed, well-poised 
woman of about thirty. As I drew near her 
there were the freckles that spoke of a life in 
the sunshine. I had a great desire to salute her 
as "sister" in appreciation of the very joy that 
she radiated. Remembering Whitman's advice 
to speak to the stranger, I was about to address 
her when a mutual recognition took place. I 
laughingly said, "I did not recognize you at first, 
but I was going to speak to you anyway because 
of the joy of the health and strength in the 
look of you." She said, "I am joyously well; I 
am just back from the south and I am going to 
the country, where I expect to have my third 
baby next week." To the health-loving, human- 

[8] 



A FOREWORD 

loving doctor who accosted her there was an 
absolute beauty in the lithe, loosely gowned fig- 
ure, the brightness of her eyes and the freedom 
of her poise and gait. As she went about her 
affairs she was an example to any woman, a citi- 
zen of the world. 

Can we not make an appeal strong enough to 
convince the individual that, through physical and 
mental health, personality is developed and life 
enhanced? Can we not begin by showing her 
that bad teeth and bad body odors detract from 
personality? Can we not show her that good 
nature, which is a lubricant to success, is lost 
through constipation or painful feet or the breath- 
ing of bad air? Can we not show her that a 
wrinkled, dry skin and genuine health do not 
occur in the same company, and that a glowing, 
glossy complexion and constipation are never 
found in the same person ? Can we not show her 
that life has many adventures for the individual 
in health and few for the individual lacking 
health? Can we not teach her that one who 
neurotically confines her range of experiences 
within the limits of her own skin and grazes 
always around and around within the narrow 
space of a purely personal view of life is shutting 
off the manifold sources of happiness which re- 
side in warm human contacts and useful social 
activities ? 

We are finding more and more that girls and 
women are interested in the building of habits 

[9] 



A FOREWORD 

which make for their success in living and grow- 
ing. Why should the processes of life not make 
a genuine appeal to the imagination of the grow- 
ing girl? We ought to be able to interest a 
group of girls in a health talk on "Pulling Up- 
hill or Running Down" just as easily as in a talk 
on a limited subject like sex hygiene. The group 
which comes to hear a general health talk may 
not be as large, but I rather think it would be 
more productive of leaders. The processes which 
make for the integration of the human machine — 
that is, the physiological — should be taken up first. 
The discussion of the sex principle as the main 
balancer and stabilizer of life's activities shoulpl 
naturally follow later in the scheme of presenta- 
tion. The most valuable and practical type of 
sex education is that which falls into place as a 
part of health education. 

The following set of lectures or talks, with 
outlines, has been prepared primarily for the use 
of club leaders. They may also be used, how- 
ever, by any social worker who is interested in 
the growth of girls' characters, provided she is 
willing to do a definite amount of reading and to 
show by her daily life that she herself is a 
healthy individual. The topics of the talks are 
so arranged that the first is a general appeal for 
personality; then come the physical health talks; 
the last two talks, involving the sex principle, are 
entitled "Love and Health" and "World Health." 
Where these talks have been tried out the groups 
[10] 



A FOREWORD 

which came for the talks on "Foods the Source 
of Joyful Work and Play" were just as large as 
those which came for the talks on "Love and 
Health." 

In conclusion, I feel more and more from the 
experiences of the past that physicians alone can- 
not give to the individual the full view of health 
required or lay out all the working plans for 
health which the individual needs. A group con- 
sisting of physicians, physical directors, recrea- 
tional and club leaders — all of them having a 
belief in positive health and what it means to the 
individual — must constitute the health unit. This 
group should be able to show the individual that 
health for health's sake has no value, but that 
health as a basis for successful living gives life 
abundant to the one who possesses it. 

To all workers on the health program I com- 
mend these lines from Edward Carpenter, the 
great appreciator and poet of personality: 

"Who are you who go about to save them that are 
lost? 

Are you saved yourself? 

Do you not know that who would save his own 
life must lose it? 

Are you then one of the 'lost'? 

Be sure, very sure, that each one of these can 
teach you as much as, probably more than, you can 
teach them. 

Have you then sat humbly at their feet, and 
waited on their laps that they should be the first to 
speak — and been reverent before these children — 
whom you so little understand? 

Have you dropped into the bottomless pit from 

[in 



A FOREWORD 

between yourself and them all hallucination of su- 
periority, all flatulence of knowledge, every shred 
of abhorrence and loathing? 
Is it equal, is it free as the wind between you ? 

Could you be happy receiving favors from one of 
the most despised of these? 

Could you be yourself one of the lost? 

Arise, then, and become a savior." 



[12 J 



TALK I 
Polling Uphill or Running Down 



[13] 



I 

PULLING UPHILL OR RUNNING 
DOWN 

Outline 

I. Introduction. 

i. A Life Insurance Company's Instruc- 
tions. 
2. Instructions from another angle. 

II. Picture of Girl— (2-10-20)— A Failure. 

III. Picture of Same Girl (11-10-20)— A 

Success. 

i. Story of the change from failure — 
physical, mental, moral — to suc- 
cess — physical, mental and moral. 

IV. What Determines the Choice for the 

Uphill Road. 

V. The Equipment for the Uphill Climb, 
i. Health inventory. 

2. Physical equipment. 

3. Mental equipment — vocation and 

avocation. 

VI. Conclusion. 

i. A healthy individual is not a quitter. 
2. The signboards on the uphill climb. 

[14] 



I 

PULLING UPHILL OR RUNNING 
DOWN 

A PROGRESSIVE Life Insurance Company, 
desiring to save wealth by saving health, 
has put out an unusually good book of in- 
structions on "How to Live Long." But a long, 
colorless, adventureless life has little appeal for 
most of us. Such instructions would mean more 
if they showed the way to breadth and depth 
as well as to length of life. This would mean 
instruction in how to live well and successfully 
and happily, how to realize our best possibilities 
all along the way. 

To do this we must decide whether we want 
to be a cipher or a personality ; whether we want 
to be a failure or a success; whether we want 
to be a creature or a creator. Who is there of 
us who does not want to be a personality, a suc- 
cess, a giver, and a creator? No one of us, to 
be sure, is willing to fall short of the best that 
is in us. Yet many of us would be surprised and 
shocked at the distance which exists between 
what we are and what we might, by means of a 
little courage and a little effort, so splendidly 
become. 

We have here the picture of a girl who was a 
receiver, a failure, a creature. She is physically, 

[IS] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

mentally and morally lacking in health. In other 
words, she is running downhill fast, for she is 
still a young girl, barely 18. This girl lived in 
one of the large cities of the east, in a filthy 
over-crowded room. She was dirty and vulgarly 
dressed; her hair and body were infested with 
vermin; she was abused sexually by male mem- 
bers of her own family. Church workers and 
welfare workers had failed to do anything with 
her. A nurse from a splendid hospital which 
had a marvelous gymnasium saw the girl and 
recognized the posture, the attitude, the behavior 
of a failure. She recognized it as a sickness and 
persuaded her, because she was ill, to go to the 
hospital. In the hospital she was taught to care 
for her body, the habit of bathing, the proper 
cleansing of the hair and teeth. Her teeth were 
filled; she was put in the gymnasium and taught 
to exercise; a removable jacket was put on her 
to help her in the straightening process. She 
was helped to good shoes and was instructed in 
the care of the feet. As the exercises continued 
her posture became better and a new jacket had 
to be made. Finally the girl assumed a posture 
in which her head was held up, her eyes looked 
the world squarely in the face and lost their 
hang-dog expression. Then, somehow, as she 
began to look the world squarely in the eyes the 
world ceased to look upon her as a failure. 

The second picture of the girl was taken within 
less than a year from the time she first went to 
[16] 



RUNNING DOWN HILL 





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PULLING UP HILL 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

the hospital and shows her as she looked after 
she was brought to the best health condition pos- 
sible. Curiously enough, the face in the second 
picture shows her morally regenerated, for as 
she approached physical and mental health she 
became morally healthy. She no longer had the 
desires that she once had when her body was 
that of a failure; or, if she did have them, she 
knew what she ought to desire and carried on 
the human fight to final success. This picture 
was taken ten years ago. Since that time the 
girl has held a good position, has improved the 
position, and is now helping other girls on the 
uphill road. This girl has pulled uphill fast. 
From a receiver, a failure, a creature, she has 
become a giver, a success, a creator. This girl 
did what few people understand how to do; in- 
stead of carrying her failures or sins as a burden 
on her shoulders, she used them as stepping- 
stones in her climb to higher things. 

Whether we pull uphill or downhill depends 
upon our choice. If we are not mentally defec- 
tive we choose to pull uphill. The mentally de- 
fective do not know how to choose; they can be 
made to do almost anything by any one. Crimi- 
nals usually belong to this class. We want to be 
givers and to have the joy of giving. We want 
to be creators and to have the joy of creating. 
For this reason we choose to pull uphill. 

How can we prepare ourselves for a hilltop 
climb and a great view of life before the end? 
[17] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

Before you begin the climb have an inventory 
made of your present health possessions. Find 
out what you carry around with you that you 
need to get rid of. Find out what you lack and 
what you need to add to your equipment for the 
climb. 

Go to a physician, preferably one at a Health 
Foundation Center, who looks upon an individ- 
ual as an aggregate of live forces rather than a 
bundle of defects. Get her to make a complete 
examination for you, telling you where you stand 
as to your health habits and how to improve 
those habits for the climb. Find out what your 
teeth are like, what you can do to put them in 
the best condition and, from that time on, to 
keep them in the best condition. Find out what 
your throat is like and how you can live so as 
to be unconscious of your throat. Find out in 
general how your body can best be made to serve 
you with the least consciousness to yourself, with 
the greatest output of service and the greatest 
intake of joy. Get your physician to tell you 
how you can keep your body at its highest stand- 
ard of well-being, for you can do this by exercise 
and regularity in eating, by consuming certain 
types of food, by having a normal amount of 
sleep, and by having always a definite amount of 
play and recreation. Do not place any depen- 
dence on the type of doctor who patches you up 
and who tells you to return for further patching. 
Seek out rather a health doctor who shows you 
[18] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

how, through the cultivation of health habits, to 
keep all the parts of your body working for the 
whole individual and for the full, creative life. 

Learn, further, the value of health equipment 
in the form of dress; select your clothing for 
health, your shoes for health, your work for 
health. Let your work at the same time be your 
school; never let it make you into a slave or a 
drudge, for if your work does this you cannot 
have health, and without health you cannot hold 
any work for long. Any job that is worth hav- 
ing is worth developing, and any job that is 
worth having must develop you. Don't think that 
you have stopped school when you go to work, 
for work is truly our greatest educational insti- 
tution. 

An example of an individual who had pulled 
uphill in her work and had developed herself 
through her work came to one of our health doc- 
tors. She was assistant sales manager in one of 
New York's well-known stores. She was an un- 
usually young looking woman of thirty-six, beau- 
tifully yet sensibly dressed in good clothes and 
good shoes with normal lines and sensible heels. 
On examination, she proved to have a splendid 
body and a good posture. This woman had been 
forced to leave school at fourteen and had entered 
the store as cash girl. She had studied at night, 
had developed her job and herself in developing 
her job, and had gone on upward step by step 
until she now held an important position while 
[19] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

still retaining the buoyant physique of a youthful 
woman. 

Besides work or vocation one must have an 
avocation, or what someone has called a re-crea- 
tion stunt. This is something which develops 
your individuality; which lets you live out your- 
self, which expresses your personality, and which 
in the end makes for mental and spiritual health. 
With health and creative work and play, an indi- 
vidual must love life. The individual who loves 
life, loves to serve, loves to go and come, and 
feels no inclination to be a quitter. She may 
have accomplished this without the aid of any 
signs along the road to health, and she may have 
come far along the path without even being con- 
scious of any upward pull. Most of us, however, 
need to see the signs along the way which leads 
to the beauty of bodily health and the joy of 
living. In the talks which are to come we will 
give these signs for the safe climb on the uphill 
road. 



Note — For further equipment on the part of the 
club leader, see various articles in Vol. I, Proceed- 
ings of International Conference of Women Physi- 
cians. — Womans Press, 600 Lexington Avenue, New 
York. 



\20] 



TALK II 
A Good Food Tube — A Bad Food Tube 



[21] 



II 

A GOOD FOOD TUBE— A BASIC EQUIP- 
MENT FOR THE CLIMB TO SUCCESS; 
A BAD FOOD TUBE— THE SOURCE 
OF BLUES AND FAILURE 

Outline 

I. Introduction. 

1. Definition of a normal human being. 
2. The sun's energy, the source of 

human activities. 

II. The Food Tube, the Path for the Flow 
of Energy into the Body, 
i. Constipation — the worst obstruction 
to the flow. 

III. Regularity in Food Taking. 

i. The number of meals depends upon 
type of individual. 

IV. Attitude of Mind at Meal-time. 

V. The Thorough Breaking Up of Foods. 

VI. Water at Meal-times. 

VII. Regularity in Going to Stool. 

VIII. Intestinal Poisoning. 

IX. Accessories — Such as Posture, Exer- 
cise and Rest. 

[22] 



II 

A GOOD FOOD TUBE— A BASIC EQUIP- 
MENT FOR THE CLIMB TO SUCCESS; 
A BAD FOOD TUBE— THE SOURCE 
OF BLUES AND FAILURE 

A NORMAL human being consists of an ag- 
gregate of live forces, the natural activities 
and balance of which make for the full and 
enduring life of the individual, and only such 
normal human beings can make for the full and 
enduring life of the community, the nation, and 
the world. 

All these human activities are derived entirely 
from the sun's energy. The food tube is the only 
path which turns the sun's energy into the body, 
in order that the various structures of the body 
may then change it into the various human 
forces. The sun's gift is finally made into muscle 
force, brain force, and sex force, and endows us 
with all our powers of physical, mental, and 
spiritual creation. 

When one really understands the service ren- 
dered by the food tube, one's attitude on the sub- 
ject should be cleansed of all feelings of squeam- 
ishness or disgust. The food tube should be kept 
free from any obstruction that prevents the full 
flow of energy. One of the most disrupting forces 
in an individual's life is constipation. 

[23] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

The most important sign on the uphill road to 
success is the one which tells you to avoid the 
byroad to constipation. The sign along the road 
directing you away from constipation would read 
perhaps as follows: "Regularity in Food-tak- 
ing." This is so important that babies at the age 
of twelve hours are started on regular feeding 
times. It is well recognized that babies who are 
regularly fed have regular stools. Eating be- 
tween meals overworks the food tube and conse- 
quently impairs digestion, which impedes the flow 
of energy and lowers the individual's usefulness. 
The number of meals a day depends upon the 
age or the type of individual, that is, whether 
she is under-weight or over-weight. Most young 
girls up to the age of eighteen need always three 
meals a day. Some of the rather thin gray-hound 
type require five meals a day, but always regu- 
larly taken. 

Much depends upon the mental condition at 
the time of food taking, as energy may be com- 
pletely wasted or thoroughly worked up accord- 
ing to the mental attitude at meal time. Pleasant 
thoughts while eating cause perfect digestion. A 
"grouch" may cause a sour stomach or even a 
sick headache which may result in much greater 
loss to the body than is compensated for by the 
food taken into the body. Anger will cause indi- 
gestion or nausea and vomiting. Grief or fear 
may cause diarrhea. 

Chewing the food well is most important, and 
[24] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

the drinking of much water is essential to health. 
Any amount of water can be taken at meal times 
without damage to digestion, providing the teeth 
are used for chewing the food and the water is 
not taken to wash down unbroken substances. A 
vast amount of energy is wasted through bad 
mastication of the food, which means always 
under-digested food. 

If teeth are missing entirely or in part through 
cavities, the food cannot be thoroughly broken 
up. When sent into the stomach and on into the 
intestines in this partially prepared condition, it 
cannot be thoroughly impregnated with the juices 
of those organs and hence it is lost as a source 
of energy to the body. So important are the 
teeth, however, in the health activities of the 
individual that this subject is left for an entire 
lecture by itself. 

Though water is an important food of the 
body, it is not in this aspect but as a preventive 
to obstruction in the food tube through consti- 
pation that we must consider it here. Water can 
be taken in quantities amounting to two or three 
glasses at meal time without any damage to 
digestion and with benefit to the entire body. 

Eight glasses of water taken regularly every 
day by an individual is one of the greatest aids 
to thorough bowel evacuation. Rarely do we find, 
in the health examination, one who gives a his- 
tory of eight glasses of water a day without giv- 
ing also regular habits in going to stool. 
[25] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

Along with regular eating, with drinking plenty 
of water, and with regularity in going to stool, 
should be included correct posture. A pendulous 
abdomen with a round or a hollow, or a long 
round back, throws the upper, heavier organs of 
the abdomen upon the food tube, retards the flow 
of the content, and cripples the flow of the blood 
to and from the food tube. Plenty of muscle 
exercise before, and rest after, eating are needed 
for complete digestion and freedom from consti- 
pation. Exercise increases the flow of blood, 
tightens up the muscles, and sends the content 
of the food tube downward. 

Rest and cheerful light recreation, following 
immediately after food taking, leaves the blood 
supply free for the organs of digestion and per- 
mits the energy of the body to center mainly 
around the food tube, releasing later a supply of 
energy for the higher activities of the body. 

The types of food also play an important role 
in keeping the food tube free. This will be con- 
sidered in a special lecture on foods. 

In conclusion, since constipation has been 
found over and over to play such an important 
part in the individual's happiness or unhappiness, 
no effort is too great which will have the effect 
of preventing this trouble. From an aesthetic 
standpoint, a constipated individual is as dirty as 
a housekeeper who leaves the garbage can uncov- 
ered in the kitchen from day to day in the fly 
season, with the windows unscreened. Stool in the 
[26] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

food tube means putrefaction, which means decay, 
which means the passing of putrefactive sub- 
stances into the blood and thence throughout the 
body. This induces headaches, stiff muscles, stiff 
joints, brittle blood vessels and decay in general. 
Constipation may cause a weakened condition of 
the lining of the food tube, which permits the 
entrance of the disease-producing bacteria some- 
times present in raw food or in impure drinking 
water. Such bacteria entering a healthy food 
tube would probably get no foothold whatever, 
but would be passed out with the stools. 

Constipation is the greatest single impediment 
to a healthy climb up the hill. It is a dis- 
integrating force in energy ingestion, a great 
unbalancer of activities. Personality in the indi- 
vidual develops from meeting the issues squarely 
and forcefully. A pill for constipation is im- 
moral. It evades the issue. A great physician 
once said that constipation would not exist if 
everybody ate regularly, drank water plentifully, 
took plenty of exercise, and went regularly to 
the toilet. To this advice must be added the 
further injunction: Don't keep that which does 
not belong to you, literally or figuratively. Don't 
be constipated, don't be penurious. No use cry- 
ing out with the poet, "Strike, strike at the root 
of penury in my heart"; get rid of your consti- 
pation which feeds the roots of your penury, and 
thus remove one of the most serious obstructions 
on the road to health and freedom. 
[27] 



TALK III 

Teeth : The Best Friend 
of the Individual 



[29] 



Ill 

TEETH: THE BEST FRIEND OF THE 
INDIVIDUAL 

Outline 

I. Introduction. 

i. The signs of failure. 
2. The signs of success. 

II. Steps Toward Having and Keeping 
Good Teeth, 
i. Ignore dental advertisements. 

2. Consult dental hygienists. 

3. Education. 

III. The Story of the Growth of the 

Teeth. 

IV. Care from Birth Until Solid Food Is 

Taken. 

1. The breast-fed baby. 
'2. The bottle baby. 
3. The baby from six to twelve months 
of age. 

V. Care of Milk Teeth. 

1. Home care; care at the hands of the 
dental hygienist. 

[30] 



VI. Care gf Permanent Teeth. 
i. Home care. 

a. Regular brushing. 

b. Dentifrices and dental floss. 

c. Value of fruit foods. 

d. Candy between meals. 

2. Regular visits to the dental hygienist. 

VII. The Damage to the Individual's 
Health from Missing, Irregular or 
Decayed Teeth. 

1. Improper mastication of food. 

2. Contaminating food with pus from 

decayed teeth. 

3. Diseases result from decayed teeth. 

VIII. Conclusion. 



[311 



Ill 

TEETH: THE BEST FRIEND OF THE 
INDIVIDUAL 

KEEPING a stiff upper-lip is good advice, 
but when one has discolored or irregular 
or decayed teeth it detracts from the forceful- 
ness of the facial expression. In a group of 
some two thousand people known as failures, 
three cardinal signs become evident. These signs 
were bad posture, bad feet, and bad teeth. The 
first two can often be concealed through good 
clothing well-padded and good shoes, but the last 
proclaims itself always. 

Nothing seems to stand for strength and health 
and joy and even youth in the presence of gray 
hair and wrinkled skin so much as good teeth. 
Until the secret of growing teeth and caring for 
them is more widely known and the art more 
generally practiced, we shall continue to shun 
many individuals over forty whose breath speaks 
for ignorance and neglect of the gate-way of all 
our energy. 

There are many of us who admire good teeth 
and who want to possess them. We turn to 
various sources for help, and not always to the 
most reliable. More people turn to advertise- 
ments for advice concerning the care of the 
body than ever dreamed of going to colleges or 
[32] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

even high schools for such education. The man 
who advertises his wares does so primarily that 
he may gain a profit, and not to increase the 
usefulness or happiness of the individuals buy- 
ing his wares. Various advertisements can be 
read daily in the newspapers and in the street 
cars on dental preparations and methods of 
caring for the teeth. These instructions may be 
as misleading as the paste is useless or harmful. 

Here is an advertisement of a dental cream 
which has a great sale. It begins as follows: 
"The teeth of young children are not yet thor- 
oughly calcified ; many have naturally soft chalky 
teeth. Many tooth pastes contain pumice, pow- 
dered oyster shell, acid-calcium-phosphate. Prof. 
Gies of Columbia College found one of these 
which was gritty enough to scratch glass ! It is 
well for mothers to be careful. It is peculiarly 
effective, safe for women and children." The 
writer of this certainly understood the psychol- 
ogy of advertisement much better than he under- 
stands anything about teeth. The advertisement 
has been so successful in selling the preparation 
that it makes one realize how sadly neglected is 
our general education concerning the growth, 
development and care of the teeth. 

This is the story of the growth of the teeth. 
When a baby comes into the world, the teeth 
are being formed deep down in the gums. The 
two rows of teeth, the milk teeth and the per- 
manent set, are already laid down in the jaw; 
[S3] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

and as the child develops, the enamel or ivory 
of the tooth is formed by a deeply bedded-in 
layer of the gum. According to the types of 
food that the mother has during pregnancy, and 
according to the types of food the child has up 
to the time the teeth are cut, and according to 
the stimulation increasing the blood supply over 
that area, will the enamel be thick and strong, 
or thin and weak. After the tooth is cut, the 
enamel cannot be made to increase through any 
type of food or tooth paste. From this time on 
until death, it is a problem of cleanly habits and 
care at the hands of the dental hygienist. Thus 
it is perfectly absurd to speak of a tooth-paste 
being good for the enamel of the teeth of a child 
or woman and not being good for the enamel of 
a man's teeth. The methods of caring for the 
teeth are alike for man, woman and child. 

With this understanding, let us look into the 
care which should be given the baby from birth 
until the first teeth are erupted, and from then 
on until the beginning of the second dentition. 
From their first appearance, the baby's teeth 
should be washed night and morning with baking 
soda water rather than boracic acid. This can 
be done with a soft cloth wrapped around the 
finger of the nurse. As solid food is added, it 
will be best to change the cleansing to three 
times a day, that is, after each meal. Besides 
rubbing the teeth with the baking-soda water, a 
soft tooth brush may be used and a flat dental 
[34] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

floss employed for removing particles from 
between the teeth. 

Before the fifth and last milk tooth is erupted, 
the child should be put into the hands of a dental 
hygienist or taken to a dental hygiene clinic 
where further instruction will be given him. A 
proper valuation of his teeth is something which 
cannot be too early acquired. At the dental 
clinic, the parents will learn that no milk teeth 
should be allowed to continue with cavities be- 
cause "they will have to come out anyway." 
They should be filled and retained as long as 
possible to hold the space open for the second 
teeth. The child who loses his first milk teeth 
without a flaw is father to the man who will 
carry most of his permanent teeth to the grave. 
So great, up to the present time, has been our 
neglect of education on this subject that about 
the only good teeth which a doctor sees are false 
teeth. 

With the coming of the permanent teeth, 
the child should already be well on the road to 
a life-long health habit. Already he should know 
the use of a tooth-brush after eating, the use of 
a tooth-powder or tooth-paste selected at the 
recommendation of the dental hygienist and not 
at the recommendation of a striking advertise- 
ment. He should know by this time that at least 
every four months his mouth should be exam- 
ined and the gums perhaps treated. It may be 
necessary that the gums be pushed back or else 
[35] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

cut in order to keep food from packing between 
the tooth and the gum and thus starting decay. 
Of thirty-five hundred people examined, twenty- 
four hundred had either loss or decay of the sixth 
tooth, which is the first molar. I have known 
children to continue after the eruption of this 
tooth for two to six months with the gum folds 
partly over the cutting surface. Where perfect 
attention after maturity has been given, we often 
find the fifth or sixth tooth with a crown, these 
teeth having become badly decayed before six- 
teen years of age. 

Eating between meals does much to damage 
the teeth because of the food particles which 
remain. Candy eating is particularly bad for 
this reason. Fruits, such as apples, pears, 
peaches, plums, oranges, and pineapples are good 
for the teeth because their juices help to pre- 
serve. At lunch time, when one is usually away 
from home and the tooth brush, it is well to 
end the meal with a piece of fruit. 

In addition to one's own care of the teeth, one 
should not fail to visit the dental hygienist at 
least three times a year. By locating the minute 
cavities and recommending their early filling, the 
hygienist can forestall extended visits to the 
dentist. Foresight in this direction is especially 
incumbent upon the pregnant mother who, to 
insure the preservation of her own teeth, should 
see to it that any slight focus of decay is cor- 
rected early in pregnancy. Few people rightly 
[36] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

value the importance of every kind of care and 
foresight in regard to the teeth as they fail to 
realize the damage which is done to all our 
normal activities, or what should be our nomal 
activities, by missing or decayed teeth. 

The breast baby usually gets sufficient salts 
from the mother's milk for developing good 
teeth as well as good bones; but where the 
mother is over-worked and under-nourished and 
early becomes pregnant again the milk may be 
lacking in these salts. Thus it is essential for a 
nursing mother to have rest and sleep and a bal- 
anced ration. This should consist of meat (once 
a day) or meat substitute such as eggs, peas, 
beans or cheese, and plenty of bread or bread 
substitutes, such as spaghetti, rice, potatoes, 
bananas. If whole-grained bread is taken, this 
is better than white bread or any of the bread 
substitutes. Besides the starchy foods which I 
have just mentioned a sweet or dessert once or 
twice a day is necessary. The sweet may con- 
sist of pudding, custard, pastry, ice-cream or 
fruit — stewed or raw. To make this a balanced 
ration, a fat, such as butter-fat or cream, should 
be added to the diet. A nursing mother also 
should have two glasses of whole milk a day. 
To these foods must be added another group 
known as the green-leaf vegetables. Every day 
one such green leaf vegetable should be included 
in the pregnant and nursing mother's diet. This 
may be in salad form or consist of a cooked 
[37] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

leafy plant. The above diet would constitute a 
balanced ration diet not only for a nursing 
mother but for any individual. Water ad libitum, 
fruits and green leaf vegetables tend to cleanse 
the food tube so that no impurities have a chance 
to enter the blood of the mother and to con- 
taminate the milk of the baby. 

If, however, a baby is on the bottle, greater 
care must be taken to see that the vegetable salts 
and essential elements for growth are included 
in the diet. This can be done by beginning, at 
the end of two and a half or three months, with 
water from a boiled vegetable, such as potatoes, 
carrots, parsnips, turnips, onions, spinach, or 
cabbage; or with tomato juice and the fruit 
juices, such as orange or pineapple. These are 
given at first in half-teaspoonfuls and gradually 
increased until a four months' old baby will 
take three ounces at one pre-bottle period. (It 
is best to have a fixed time each day to give 
this vegetable water.) This water besides fur- 
nishing substances which develop good teeth 
serves doubly in that the baby has developed a 
taste for many of the foods and there is less 
difficulty in weaning when the time comes. Be- 
cause of this latter, even a breast baby of four 
or four and a half months should be started on 
vegetable water. 

At six months of age, babies have cut their 
first teeth and a new program should be started. 
A baby should be encouraged to chew. This 
[3S] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

can be done by giving him a hard biscuit or a 
dry piece of bread or a chicken bone. A six 
months' old baby can be instructed by a nurse or 
mother or older child in chewing by standing in 
front of the baby and going through the motions 
either as an exercise or while eating. It is in- 
teresting to note that before long the young baby 
has a look of pride in his eyes as he goes 
through the form of chewing. This exercise 
with a hard food object tends to increase the 
circulation over the growing tooth area and the 
teeth are consequently nourished and strength- 
ened. It also facilitates the cutting of the teeth 
as the hard objects opposing enable them to 
come with less pain, and the mechanical stimu- 
lation is conducive to earlier eruption. Food 
objects only are recommended for exercising 
the gum, because the mental attitudes of even 
the youngest baby should always be safeguarded. 
Though I am aware that he has much to learn 
of the outside world by putting objects into his 
mouth, he must soon realize that the mouth is 
for taking in food and for making known his 
wants and not for thumb-sucking or for pacifiers 
and rubber nipples. 

Already I have dwelt upon the favorable in- 
troduction that good teeth give you in entering a 
new situation and in meeting new people. The 
following are some of the unfavorable things 
that are due to bad teeth. Where there are cavi- 
ties or pyorrhea there is pus, and pus in or about 
[39] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

the teeth means pus mixed with the food, which 
is not a very pleasant thought to entertain. But 
pus in the teeth or in the food from the teeth 
may mean serious disorders in the stomach or 
intestines; it may mean anemia for the individ- 
ual; it may mean rheumatism and many other 
ills which need not be mentioned. 

We cannot pay too much attention to the early 
feeding of the individual for the growth of good 
teeth, to the early care of the baby's teeth 
toward good permanent teeth, and to the con- 
tinuous care of the permanent teeth towards the 
maintenance of health and towards having young 
teeth in old age. 



[40] 



TALK IV 

Foods : The Source of Joyful 
Work and Play 



141 1 



IV 

FOODS: THE SOURCE OF JOYFUL 
WORK AND PLAY 

Outline 

I. Introduction. 

i. The everlasting source of all living 

movement. 
2. The path for human work and play. 

II. Foodstuffs. 

i. Definition according to the work. 
2. Classification according to definition. 

III. Foods That Enable the Child to Grow 

and Enable the Grown Person to 
Repair His Own Body. 

IV. Foods That Help to Make the Most 

Work Possible and Sports More De- 
lightful. 

V. Foods That Keep the Body Warm and 
the Tissues Oiled Up. 

VI. Foods That Are Not Considered as 
Foods, but Without Which There is 
No Life. 

VII. Protective Foods Which Make for 
Young Old Age. 
[42] 



VIII. Accessory Articles of Diet. 

1. Woody foods that exercise the intes- 

tines. 

2. Stimulants, seasoning, etc. 

IX. Conclusion. 



[43] 



IV 

FOODS: THE SOURCE OF JOYFUL 
WORK AND PLAY 

WHEN riding on a fast express or on a 
powerful transatlantic vessel, we are 
being transported by the stored-up energy of 
the sun of ages past. In the same way, the 
activities of individuals shown in work, or in 
play, or in a towering rage, or in an ecstacy 
of love, or in scientific thinking, are the 
expression of the sun's energy liberated from 
nature's present storehouse, — our plant foods. 
The path for the sun's energy is the food-tube, 
while the energy itself lies in the food to be 
digested. Without these foods, there is no such 
thing as animal life, much less human activity. 
Directly or indirectly all foods come from plant 
life and only plants have the power of fixing 
the sun's energy. 

Our foods thus stored up are made up of a 
single foodstuff or a combination of foodstuffs, 
which besides furnishing all our motive power, 
have the ability to make under certain condi- 
tions living tissues. With this knowledge we 
are able to give a fairly good definition of food- 
stuffs. Foodstuffs are those substances which 
produce growth and regrowth of living tissues; 
which give energy to the body; which repair 
[44] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

the waste of tissues; or which protect the body 
against premature old age or decay. According 
to this definition, we find that foodstuffs fall into 
four classes. In the first class are the growers 
and regrowers of living tissues; here belong 
meat, eggs, milk, cheese and whole grain (the 
eggs of plants). In the^ second class are the 
energy givers ; here belong all of the things men- 
tioned in class one and in addition gelatine, fats, 
starches, sugar and oxygen. In the third class 
are the replacers of wastes, the presence of 
which is absolutely essential to the growth and 
activity of living tissues, though they are never 
an integral part; here belong water and the in- 
organic salts which occur freely in vegetable 
life. In the fourth class are the protectives; 
these are, roughly speaking, the fat of milk and 
the green-leaf vegetables. 

Most important of all of the foods naturally 
are those which enable the youth to grow to 
adult life, and then enable the adult to repair his 
worn-out parts. An individual could live on 
these foods entirely, since they also give energy 
for activity, but he could not live to a good old 
age with the greatest output of service. Nature 
has given us ideal foods of this class by which 
she builds up from the egg the young of all 
living things. Milk is such an ideal food; even 
adults have been known to exist on this food 
alone, though they are unable to do hard work, 
since milk is a food for the non-working young. 
[45] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

Eggs, for any one who can read nature, are 
shown to be perfect foods. For does not from 
one egg a bony, muscular, feathered bird come 
out, which walks in some cases as soon as it 
emerges from the shell? The vegetable eggs, 
which we humans call seeds, contain the food- 
stuffs essential for the making of the young liv- 
ing plant. When these seeds are consumed by 
human beings under the name of vegetables, such 
as peas or beans, or as a whole-grain cereal or 
a whole-grain bread, they are not so easily di- 
gested as animal eggs, but they contain all the 
foodstuffs for growing and regrowing tissues. 
They have this advantage : that they contain an 
unusual amount of the salts, which makes for 
good bone and teeth and resistance of tissue. 
Perhaps the good teeth of the southern negro 
child or white child in the years past was due to 
the consumption at an early age of corn bread 
or cornmeal mush made from the stone-ground 
or whole-grain corn and of the so-called "pot- 
liquor," which is the extract of boiled vegetables. 
The flesh of all animals, from the lowest to 
the highest, is able to repair the worn-out por- 
tions of the body. There was a time when meat 
was consumed extensively; but, from an aesthetic 
point of view as well as from the consideration 
of the high cost of producing meat as compared 
with that of producing eggs, milk, peas, beans, 
rice, or grains of any sort, meat is fast falling 
into disfavor. It is no uncommon thing to find 
[46] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

an extensive meat-eater of ten years ago now 
consuming meat only two or three times a week 
and honestly declaring that he feels fitter by far 
than he ever did when taking meat twice a day. 
Perhaps the time will come when little red meat 
will be consumed, while fish and fowl will almost 
entirely take its place. For the present it is a 
matter of taste whether meat is consumed or 
not; the fact is that nature gives us excellent 
substitutes and, judging from the condition of 
the world at the present time, the use of meat 
is likely to decrease rather than increase in the 
future. The handwriting on the wall declares 
against it. 

The man who runs longest, the man who works 
hardest, the man who thinks most surely and 
quickly, needs must have a supply of quickly- 
liberated energy. The foodstuff which passes 
most quickly from food into muscle activity or 
bodily activity of all sorts is sugar. Fats, on the 
other hand, supply the individual with energy, 
but energy that comes out mainly in the form of 
heat. Fat is desired in a cold climate, while 
sugar is better for the hot climate. Starch be- 
comes sugar through the energy of the diges- 
tive organs and, thus converted, is a usable sub- 
stance for muscle work or play. There is hardly 
any vegetable that we can mention which has 
not some starch. The potato, the egerminated 
cereals or grains for breadstufls contain starch 
predominantly. The banana is one fruit which 
[47] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

contains as much starch as a potato of the same 
size. 

Our fats come to us from vegetable foods such 
as nuts or seeds, from animal tissue, or from 
milk and eggs. A small amount of fat is re- 
quired daily for the well-being of the individual. 
An excessive diet of fats or sweets or starches 
tends to over-weight. This is an indication of 
a lack of health, mental and physical and spirit- 
ual, and speaks for the ill-health of the indi- 
vidual just as much as does under-weight. 

Oxygen is the one food with which the high 
cost of living has little concern. Though nature 
has given us a special compartment of the food- 
tube to handle this food, we often ignore it. It 
is absolutely essential for freeing the energy 
latent in our food and rendering it the source 
of all forms of human activity. The weather 
should never be too cold for a window to be open 
to allow fresh air laden with oxygen to feed the 
body by way of the lungs. 

Water, which has been too long neglected as 
a drink and too frequently regarded merely as 
a diluent, is now recognized as absolutely essen- 
tial for the well-being of the individual, It must 
bathe all of the tissues, washing out the impuri- 
ties or diluting them so that no damage is done 
to the eliminating structures of the body. Water 
should be taken regularly as food is taken and 
plentifully at all times for health. 

The inorganic salts which occur in vegetables 
[48] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

are taken willy-nilly in sufficient quantities if 
we eat the proper amount and kind of vege- 
tables. The adult is less likely to suffer through 
a lack of these than the baby. Experiments on 
litters of young rabbits — the one group being 
starved absolutely and the other being given 
foods entirely lacking in inorganic salts — showed 
that the starving rabbits outlived the rabbits on 
the salt-free diet. 

The work of Dr. MacCullom has added to our 
diet certain foodstuffs as essential to longevity 
of life and a young old age. These things are 
designated as protective foodstuffs. They are 
the fat of the dairy products and the green-leaf 
vegetables. To every daily dietary there should 
be added a glass of milk and one leafy salad or 
its equivalent in a cooked leafy vegetable. Vege- 
table fats do not take the place of milk-fat or 
butter-fat. The butter substitutes have become 
so perfectly produced from vegetable fats that 
one is only safe in getting one's milk fat in the 
form of milk. 

Chocolate in the form of sweet milk chocolate 
is a compact food containing all the foodstuffs; 
as a beverage, made with milk, it is still a per- 
fect food containing all the foodstuffs. Cocoa 
is low in fat as compared with chocolate. Tea 
and coffee are stimulants and, except for the 
sugar and cream used with them, are of no food 
value. As a morning beverage they act as a 
[49] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

tonic on the food-tube and aid the bowel evacua- 
tion. 

The woody parts of plants besides their green- 
leaf parts serve as protectives. They act as a 
sweeper or a mechanical irritant to the food- 
tube and help in cleansing the food-tube each 
day. For this reason a coarse vegetable, cooked 
or in solid form, is recommended twice a day. 
The Japanese, who have such beautiful teeth 
and who seem to know little of constipation, con- 
sume vegetables for three meals instead of one 
or two at most, as the Americans do. 

In conclusion, we daily require a balanced 
ration coming from all four classes of food- 
stuffs, with the accessory articles which have 
'been mentioned. It would be foolish in the light 
of MacCullom and Simmon's new book on the 
"American Diet," or Graham Lusk's little book 
on "Foods in War Time/' to say anything fur- 
ther on this subject. These two books should be 
in the possession of any leader who attempts to 
discuss the subject of foods with girls. If she 
can suggest to them the necessity of finding out 
the average weight for their own ages and 
heights and of feeding up or down to that aver- 
age, she will have been of service. I have tried 
to give here the principles and not the facts; 
the facts, I have said, are contained in the two 
books mentioned. 



150] 



TALK V 

Exercise: An Almost Forgotten 
Necessity for the Climb 



151] 



EXERCISE: AN ALMOST FORGOTTEN 
NECESSITY FOR THE CLIMB 

Outline 
I. Introduction. 

i. Physical exercise is not sufficient. 
2. The human being has not two lives — 
but one. 

II. Wrong Ideas of Exercise, 
i. Passive (massage). 
2. Monotonous training. 

III. Right Ideas of Exercise. 

i. Brisk activity with pleasant com- 
panionship. 
2. Outdoor walks, games, etc. 

IV. Exercise of the Muscles. 

i. Not strength alone, but balance and 

tone needed. 
2. Loose clothing necessary. 

V. Habits That Exercise. 

i. Free bodily movements. 
2. Cold bathing. 

VI. Mental Exercise. 

i. Prejudice hobbles the mind. 
2. Joy in living essential to health. 
[52] 



EXERCISE : AN ALMOST FORGOTTEN 
NECESSITY FOR THE CLIMB 

EXERCISE to most people means certain 
bodily movements which give physical 
health but weary the soul. What is really 
meant by exercise is activity of body and mind 
accompanied by a play of emotion which pro- 
duces a feeling of health, joy and freedom in the 
individual. 

We know that body and soul are so intimately 
bound together that the one cannot receive a 
benefit which the other does not share. If bodily 
exercise does not strengthen the soul, it has failed 
of its purpose. But mental health cannot be sus- 
tained by the individual who fails to take the 
necessary amount of physical exercise. The har- 
monious interplay of flesh and spirit is indispens- 
able for health, since health itself is not attain- 
able except through integration of the whole life. 

The human being should not divide his life 
into compartments as he is often inclined to 
do. He has not nine lives, but one — and to 
live that one life well requires the unfolding of 
the totality of his capacities. Those which are 
neglected disturb the whole economy of life, 
and the fatal cost distributes itself subtly 
[53] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

throughout the entire range of individual health 
and happiness. 

Exercise is one of the most neglected necessi- 
ties of life. Among women its claims have been 
almost forgotten. To the portly middle-aged it 
means massage and to the young girl it means a 
monotonous "gym." With these pitifully inade- 
quate ideas of exercise women permit the culture 
of the body to lag behind the culture of the per- 
sonality, ignoring the fact that only through the 
body can the personality express itself. 

There are great numbers of women who be- 
lieve that passive exercise, or manipulative treat- 
ment, can regenerate the individual. Passive 
exercise does not belong in the life of the ndrmai 
person, but to the physically sick or the lazy- 
minded. The self-indulgent, over-weight indi- 
vidual prefers it to voluntary exertion. I once 
heard a physician of the old school say to an 
obese patient, "You should have deep massage 
to reduce, long before engaging in active exer- 
cise." This is not wise advice, but outright 
spoiling. In their acceptance of the role of "the 
weaker sex," women have grown accustomed to 
this kind of spoiling and will need to rid them- 
selves of its consequences by prolonged self- 
discipline. I think that if the individual in ques- 
tion had been shipwrecked on a desert island the 
active exercise required for securing her food 
would have far exceeded the passive method rec- 
ommended for reducing purposes. 
[54] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

When it comes to active exercise, we are often 
led to think that this is only to be obtained 
through setting-up exercises in the morning or 
training at fixed times in a gymnasium. These 
things are beneficial as far as they go; but they 
do not constitute the whole duty of woman in 
regard to exercise. Too much system and regu- 
larity in this field as everywhere else in life tends 
to cause a lack of interest. More value may be 
found, perhaps, in one brisk, enjoyable walk 
with pleasant companionship, or in hiking with 
a congenial group, or in an exciting game of 
tennis or hockey than in any amount of dutifully 
taken and regimented exercise. 

The immense value of outdoor exercise is the 
intake of fresh air. The lungs discharge their 
waste without retardation and the blood is sent 
surging through the body fully charged with 
energy-giving substances. At the same time, 
other waste products are taken from the blood 
by the kidneys and the whole process of elimina- 
tion is agreeably quickened. The blood pressure 
is higher under happy, out-of-door conditions 
and all the functionings are consequently more 
animated. The whole life-flow is more vigorous. 

In the years past we have been inclined to 
consider exercise simply as the means for the 
achievement of muscle strength. We have been 
inclined to think of muscles as something con- 
fined to the arms and legs, and, furthermore, as 
confined to men alone. This is too narrow a 
[55] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

view. The muscles of the back, of the abdomen, 
of the heart, even the muscles of the voice — all 
of these muscles deserve the same attention and 
cultivation as the famous biceps. Above all else, 
the toning up and co-ordination of the whole 
muscular system is necessary for the attainment 
of good posture and free and buoyant movement. 

This leads at once to the question of clothing. 
Loose clothing which does not confine and in- 
hibit the body at every turn is absolutely neces- 
sary. Of what use is it to spend a couple of 
hours a week in loose gymnasium clothes if, 
for all the rest of the time, one's body is im- 
prisoned within a hobble skirt and a tight waist 
which locks up the lungs and deprives the arms 
of all their natural reach ? Exercise, in the sense 
of free movement, belongs to every hour of the 
day, and women's muscles are just as much in 
need of this kind of activity as of specialized 
exercises. In fact, everybody needs both kinds 
to supplement each other. 

Another form of exercise which is rarely re- 
garded as such is the cold bath. People ordi- 
narily think that bathing is solely for the pur- 
pose of keeping clean, but cold bathing is a valu- 
able form of exercise besides. Taken on first 
arising, either a sponge, or a splash, or a shower, 
or tub, followed by a brisk rub, gives sufficient 
exercise to protect the individual against colds. 
When the skin is so toned, lightweight clothing 
will serve all needs for honest comfort. The 
[56] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

over-bundled and swathed people are the ones 
who are afraid of drafts and the ones who are 
perpetually suffering from colds. Clothing should 
be adjusted to the conditions under which we 
live. We should not try to make our clothes 
do the work our skins should do. 

Mental exercise in the form of play or relaxa- 
tion is also needful for true health. In the 
same way that you can increase the range of 
your muscular activities, you can increase the 
range of your personal sympathies and enjoy- 
ments. The greater the number of common daily 
experiences from which you can derive genuine 
pleasure, the greater is your capacity for happi- 
ness. Elasticity of mind and soul is maintained 
by much the same kind of exercise as elasticity 
of body. A prejudice is to the mind what a 
hobble skirt is to the body. The free soul does 
not "hate this" and "detest that"; the free soul 
goes forth to meet the variegated world, bravely 
and hospitably, realizing its own profound unity 
with all of human life. 

Science has shown that fear and anger and 
hatred affect the health of the individual in a 
deteriorating way. For this reason self-expres- 
sion in work and joy in service must occur if 
the individual is finally to succeed in her climb 
to health and to a free personality. 



[57] 



TALK VI 

Hidden Traps on the 
Road to Success 



[59] 



VI 

HIDDEN TRAPS ON THE ROAD TO 

SUCCESS: INFECTIONS AND 

RESISTANCE TO THEM 

Outline 
I. Introduction. 

II. Resistance. 

i. Courage versus fear. 

2. Education versus ignorance. 

III. Constipation the Cause of Lowered 

Resistance. 

1. How not to be constipated. 

IV. The Skin and Its Care for Resistance. 

V. Foods for Resistance. 

VI. Sleep and Recreation for Resistance; 
the Harm of Worry. 

VII. What to Know About Infections, 
i. Food-borne infections. 

2. Air-borne infections. 

3. Skin infections. 

4. Venereal infections. 

VIII. The Common Sense of Avoiding Infec- 
tions. 

IX. Conclusion. 

[60] 



VI 

HIDDEN TRAPS ON THE ROAD TO 

SUCCESS: INFECTIONS AND 

RESISTANCE TO THEM 

A HEALTHY individual is one whose body 
is directed and controlled by a healthy mind. 
The coward has not a healthy mind, for fear is 
always a disturber of mental stability. Courage 
is therefore not a moral luxury, an ornament of 
character, but is essential to health. 

A lack of courage in the face of an epidemic 
or a constant dread of disease always militates 
against good health. The fear of influenza pos- 
sesses one person, the fear of tuberculosis pos- 
sesses another, the fear of typhoid another, the 
fear of heart trouble another. All such fears 
produce depressions which lower the resistance 
and make infection more probable. The indi- 
vidual resorts to quackery and drugs until there 
is no common sense, no strength or self-reliance 
left. 

Since many of the fears which destroy health 
are due to ignorance, let us seek knowledge in 
order that we may become free from fear. Let 
us get back to a common sense understanding of 
some of the things which make for the health of 
the individual, increasing the resistance, which is 
our greatest safeguard. Let us go to school, a 
[61] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

health school, and learn how to avoid unneces- 
sary exposures and disease-producing organisms. 

Consider colds, for example. This may mean 
influenza, or the ordinary common cold, which 
may lead on to pneumonia, pleurisy, pus on the 
chest, or tuberculosis. In the beginning a cold 
is often aborted by relieving the congestion of 
the food-tube by means of a laxative. In the 
presence of constipation congestion occurs more 
easily and colds may be a common occurrence. 
An individual is then said to be lacking in re- 
sistance. 

To avoid constipation cultivate these health 
habits : 

1. Drink eight glasses of water a day, two on 
first rising. 

2. Eat regularly. Eat much of the green vege- 
tables and coarse breads, with meat only once a 
day. 

3. Go at a regular time each day for bowel 
evacuation. 

4. Ten-minute setting-up exercises each day 
will add to the tone of the muscles of the food- 
tube. 

5. Good posture while sitting or standing will 
greatly aid the powels in self-cleansing. 

Perhaps the care of the skin is as important 
as the care of the food-tube toward a sturdy 
resistance to colds. How few women consider 
the skin of any purpose except as an item of 
appearance ! Let us stop to think why it is that 
[62] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

the wind blowing on the face never leads to 
colds, but blowing on the back it often does. 
The reason is that the skin of the face has be- 
come adapted, by means of cold water and cold 
air, to perform its normal work, while the skin 
of the back has not. The normal work of the 
skin is that of regulating the heat of the body. 
If the skin is properly toned up it will rarely 
allow one to take a cold even in the face of an 
infection. This is best done in the morning on 
first rising. A cold plunge, a cold sponge, a 
cold shower, followed by a brisk rub, is the best 
way of toning, so that when the body is exposed 
to cold drafts the skin will tighten up and pre- 
vent an undue loss of heat, which means a low- 
ered resistance. A skin so trained requires the 
minimum amount of clothing. Those who live 
and work in houses which are warmed to sum- 
mer temperature in winter may wear the same 
weight of underclothing summer and winter, only 
heavier top-clothes for outdoors. 

Lightweight woolen things, preferably two 
layers to one heavy garment, is ideal for holding 
the warmth. Woolen stockings with low shoes 
are better for warmth and circulation than thin 
stockings with tightly laced shoes or boots. 
Shoes with plenty of room in exceedingly cold 
weather do not retard the circulation and keep 
one from having painfully cold feet. Furs high 
about the neck tend to unnecessary warmth, 
causing dilatation of the skin blood-vessels and 
[63] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

the pouring out of perspiration. When the furs 
are thrown back there is a sudden chilling of this 
portion of the body and sore throat is often the 
result. 

Foods for resistance are those which not only 
nourish, but which aid in sweeping the food-tube 
clean. Besides the ordinary foods, which we 
usually get sufficiently, such as meat, bread, the 
root vegetables known as tubers, and cereals, 
there are two health-giving foods which tend 
greatly to increase resistance. These are the 
green-leaf plants and dairy products. 

In the influenza epidemic of 1918 and 1919 the 
disease was very prevalent among men in the 
prime of life and particularly among the young 
men in the army, where milk and green-leaf 
vegetables were lacking in the dietary. Where 
the epidemic's mortality was greatest, meat, 
bread and potatoes were eaten with almost none 
of the salads or top-milk or cream. With the 
high cost of living, these two things are often 
considered non-essential and resistance is conse- 
quently lowered. One glass of milk and one 
salad a day or its equivalent in a cooked leafy 
vegetable should always be the rule. 

At least eight hours of sleep with an open 
window, no matter how cold the temperature, 
are necessary for the keeping up of resistance. 
This does not mean eight hours in bed planning 
the next day's w r ork or thinking of the things 
[64] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

left undone, but it means eight hours of health- 
building sleep. 

Recreation for resistance is absolutely essen- 
tial. By recreation I do not mean the kind you 
pay for with the crowd, but the kind that you 
get with good muscle exercise. The joy that 
you get out of the feeling of muscle-play and 
the increase in your circulation through that 
muscle-play will do much toward throwing off 
broken-down substances and building up a first- 
class resistance. 

Worry, like fear and anger, lowers the resist- 
ance. It does one's self no good and it wastes 
energy for the world which might be used con- 
structively. It makes for a flabby-minded, flabby- 
bodied individual, which prepares the way for a 
diseased organism. 

If your resistance is great you may be exposed 
over and over, as, for instance, physicians are, 
without contracting any disease. However, it 
is well to know in a simple way what the physi- 
cians know, how not to invite exposure. There 
are certain diseases that get into the individual's 
body through the mouth and food-tube. These 
diseases are produced by organisms that occur 
in impure water, impure milk, uncooked or un- 
clean food. People should know the source of 
the water and the milk they are drinking. In 
large cities the health department supplies infor- 
mation on the condition of the various milks in 
the market. If you are in doubt it is cheaper 
[65] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

to send the milk to a private laboratory for 
examination than to pay for medical and nurs- 
ing attention through typhoid or dysentery. 

There are certain other diseases which gain 
entrance to the body through the nose, throat 
and lungs. Colds, influenza, pneumonia, diph- 
theria, scarlet fever, tuberculosis and meningitis 
enter in this way. One can easily see that 
sneezing, coughing or kissing may transmit the 
disease to the individual exposed, since the 
source of infection often remains in the nose 
and throat and mouth. How many times have 
I seen a sick person cough into the palm of his 
right hand and then shake hands with his best 
friend. How many times have I seen the person 
whose hand was shaken place the same hand on 
his face. No wonder that air-borne infections 
are so prevalent ! No doctor ever goes from the 
handling of a sick patient without thoroughly 
washing his hands, and if the patient has 
coughed in his face, as so frequently happens, 
he likewise washes his face. Learn during the 
periods of colds, coughs and pneumonia, if you 
have not learned it already, to keep yourself out 
of dense crowds, to keep your hands away from 
your face, and to wash your hands frequently 
and thoroughly. 

There are certain diseases that gain entrance 
through broken areas of the skin. The skin is 
more pliable if too frequent bathing with hot 
water and soap is not indulged in. Three warm 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

soap baths a week suffice for cleanliness, but a 
cold bath every day tones the skin. Where the 
skin is inclined to grow dry and cracked and 
hang-nails occur, cold cream should be used 
liberally at bedtime, well rubbed in. Insect bites 
of all sorts should be warded off. If foreign 
bodies, like pins and needles, which may be dirty, 
enter the skin, the wound should be treated at 
once, if very superficial, with iodine; otherwise 
a doctor should be seen. Deep abscesses and 
blood-poison sometimes result from such slight 
skin injuries. 

There are two other infections, known as 
Venereal infections — gonorrhea and syphilis. 
These may be otherwise acquired, but they 
usually enter the body through the mucous mem- 
branes of the generative tract. Any one con- 
tracting either of these diseases may infect an- 
other. If either parent is infected, the child may 
pay the penalty. 

A protection against these diseases is a health 
examination of both parties before marriage and 
if the examination proves satisfactory the mar- 
riage allowed. After marriage clean living on 
the part of husband and wife will insure against 
the venereal diseases. 

The common sense of avoiding infections is 
to learn how the usual infections are acquired 
and be able to ward them off, not with drugs and 
fear, but with understanding and courage and a 
well-developed resistance. 
[67] 



TALK VII 

The Feet on Wh.ich We Stand 
or Fau. 



[69] 



VII 

THE FEET ON WHICH WE STAND 

OR FALL IN THE CLIMB AND 

POSTURE WHICH AIDS 

OR RETARDS US 

Outline 
I. Introduction. 

i. Effect of bad shoes on women's ex- 
pressions. 

2. War Department Bulletin, Document 

879, October, 1918. 

3. Shoes for health and safety. 

II. The Feet Revealed by Most Examina- 

tions. 

III. What Is the Normal Foot, Anyway? 

See the Baby's Foot. 

IV. The Adult Foot Can Be Beautiful. 

V. What Has Transformed the Foot So 
That the Adult Is Ashamed of It? 

1. The bunion and corn-maker. 

2. Calluses. 

3. Weakened arches. 

VI. Why Are Deforming Shoes Worn? 

1. The manufacturer's profits. 

2. False standards among women. 

[70] 



VII. Posture as Affected by Aching Feet 
and Bad Shoes. 

VIII. The Mental Attitude of the American 
Foot-binder. 

IX. Accept the Feet as a Reality and 
Make the Best of Them. 



[71] 



VII 

THE FEET ON WHICH WE STAND 

OR FALL IN THE CLIMB AND 

POSTURE WHICH AIDS 

OR RETARDS US 

AN English visitor tells the story of watching 
the American woman going about her 
affairs in the streets of New York and of won- 
dering at the general unhappy expression which 
spoke for bad news. But after observing for a 
while the popular type of foot-wear and the crip- 
pled walk of these sad-looking women, she de- 
cided that the matter was bad shoes and not bad 
news. 

The War Department early in the war began 
to realize the part that foot-wear plays in 
efficiency. Courage and other hopeful emotions 
are directly impaired by painful feet. As the 
result of these observations, a pamphlet was 
written and given to the army on the care of 
the soldiers' feet and proper foot-gear. 

The care of the feet is of the utmost impor- 
tance in keeping people fit and in keeping them 
safe. In one concern, where over 100,000 people 
are employed, a study of the accidents which 
occurred throughout two years showed over fifty 
per cent of those among women as due to trip- 
[72] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

ping or slipping, while less than one fifth of the 
accidents among men were due to these causes. 

The fight for good shoes must be waged with 
more determination and seriousness among 
women than among men. 

Examination of women in business, in indus- 
try, in homes, and in so-called society shows 
calluses, corns, pinched toes, ingrowing toenails, 
bunions and broken arches. In two thousand 
examinations, not a perfect foot was found. The 
business woman showed the highest percentage 
of good feet and the society "butterfly" came 
next, owing to the fact that, though she wears 
bad shoes, she stands but little. 

After hundreds of such examinations of 
adults, one begins to ask the question, what is 
the normal foot anyhow? Usually one has to go 
to the baby for the answer. In looking at the 
baby's foot, one marvels that the ugly object 
which is usually the adult woman's foot could 
once have been the beautiful foot of a baby. 

Place the finger against the pink surface be- 
neath the anterior arch of a baby's foot, and 
watch the little toes curve around it. Next 
observe the long arch which makes for the 
strength of the whole foot and enables it to bear 
the weight of the whole body. The rounded heel 
is seen to be hardly more than half the width of 
the ball of the foot. But more noticeable than any- 
thing else is the big toe continuing in a straight 
line on the inner side of the foot. Occasionally 

[73] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

adults are found whose feet have retained their 
natural beauty and have added strength through 
use and service. Even very old people have been 
found whose feet have preserved the straight 
inner line, the rounded toes free from corns, the 
anterior arch free from calluses beneath, and the 
long flexible posterior arch. How have these 
people retained from babyhood these perfec- 
tions? First, through exercise and freedom of 
the foot. Probably they went barefoot until six 
or seven years of age or older, wearing foot- 
gear only when the cold weather demanded it. 
Probably they wore stockings that were never 
too short, shoes never too short with a straight 
inner line following the line of the big toe, and 
low heels only high enough to make up for the 
thickness of the soles. Shoes with plenty of 
room, flexible shanks, and low tops, allow the 
foot to exercise its muscles and to retain its 
living arch. 

Such is the type of shoe which should clothe 
a good foot. 

What are the various things in a woman's 
shoe which have so deformed her feet that she 
is ashamed to go barefoot, while claiming that 
she is too modest? 

The narrow, pointed shoe is a bunion maker 
and corn producer. The high heel helps to irri- 
tate the bunion joint and increase the enlarge- 
ment. It helps to throw the weight forward in 
such a manner as to break down the anterior 
[74] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

arch and produce a callus. High heels, stiff 
shanks, and tightly laced tops weaken and finally 
break the long arch. This type of shoe together 
with the habit of walking with the toes pointing 
outward, finally reduce the thing of beauty and 
strength to a thing of deformity and weakness. 
Why do such shoes for women continue to exist? 
Why was it formerly almost impossible to get 
really good shoes for women? The statement of 
one manufacturer will indicate the reason. 
"Frankly," he said, "I do not want women to 
wear sensible shoes as the profit comes from the 
change of style." 

False standards on the part of woman have 
much to do with fashion's domination. The 
selfish desire to have something that others can- 
not have plays a great part in the wearing of 
the stylish but distorted shoe. Somehow, the 
high-heeled, pointed shoe is symbolic of the ac- 
ceptance of enfeebling standards. The clinging- 
vine type further limits her range with a hobble 
skirt. A woman so handicapped by dress gives the 
impression of being unable to stand alone either 
physically or mentally. Her posture is entirely 
changed by the stilted heels, which cause the 
shoulders to sag downward and the abdomen to 
be thrust forward, giving the typical attitude of 
failure and absence of courage. 

If we could send an appeal to the womanhood 
of America, we should say : Let us respect our 
feet as they deserve and keep them at their best. 
[75] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

Our feet should carry us through a long day and 
a long life without our becoming painfully con- 
scious of them. They should help us to be free 
to act from within and not mislead us through 
painful promptings to behave unsocially. The 
highest type of individual is the one who acts 
positively and from within, not the one who 
reacts negatively and to external things. 

One must release one's feet from all enslave- 
ment to fashion, if one would be a success and 
not a failure, a creator and not a creature. 



[76] 



TALK VIII 

Dkugs: The Most Misleading Sign 
on the Way 



177) 



VIII 

DRUGS: THE MOST MISLEADING 
SIGN ON THE WAY 

Outline 

I. Introduction. 

Aspirin as an example of the misuse 
of drugs. 

II. Pain as the Excuse for Drugs. 

Causes of pain should be ferreted out 
and removed. 

III. Tuberculosis. 

Marked improvement in conditions. 
Treatment by education, not drugs. 

IV. Syphilis. 

Specific drugs known. 

Sex education the best preventive. 

V. Why Drugs Are Made and Why Ad- 
vertised. 

VI. Health Education. 



[78] 



VIII > 

DRUGS : THE MOST MISLEADING 
SIGN ON THE WAY 

THE drug which makes its appearance most 
frequently in the health examination is 
aspirin. It heads the list of the too-familiar and 
too-convenient remedies, with which people try 
to conjure health, so to speak, instead of work- 
ing for it. The rise of drugs is due to a certain 
superstitious attitude of mind which even in these 
modern times still clings to the healing art as 
people understand it. It is easier to believe in 
the mysterious an dinstantaneous efficacy of "po- 
tions" than to develop the type of steady resis- 
tance and every-day health which will tend to 
hold sickness firmly at bay. 

The story of aspirin will illustrate the part 
played by drugs in general. The good which is 
done by self-administered drugs is very small by 
comparison with the harm which they do indi- 
rectly to the actual realization of health. Here 
are a few instances of the harm wrought by 
taking the easy road of aspirin instead of the 
steady uphill climb to health and success. 

Pain from bad teeth; aspirin is used instead 
of a visit to the dentist. (See the talk on Teeth, 
The Best Friend of the Individual, for sugges- 
[79] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

tions on when to consult the dentist and how to 
get the best results from our teeth.) 

Pain due to eye strain; aspirin instead of right 
use of eyes or going to an oculist. 

Pain from internal absorption in constipation; 
aspirin instead of regular meals, water and leafy 
vegetable food, exercise and regular stool times. 

Pain at menstruation; aspirin instead of warm 
relaxing baths, the Mosher exercises, and gen- 
eral exercises. 

Without Health Education all these pains are 
bound to return again, and again aspirin is 
taken. There is no drug for tuberculosis, — in 
the prevention of which Health Education has 
made most progress. On this subject people are 
so well educated that the advertisements of 
drugs for the "cure" of tuberculosis has prac- 
tically ceased. There are specific drugs for 
syphilis, but that part of Health Education 
known as sex education will eventually do more 
for the prevention of syphilis than all the drugs. 

The consumption of aspirin by adults in this 
country has grown to amazing proportions. An 
expert chemical engineer who was interviewed 
on the subject made this statement, "One drug 
firm alone in this country made five tons of 
aspirin a day; while in the United States alone 
from three to five thousand pounds of aspirin 
are consumed per day." 

I have been asked why the physicians of the 
country do not do something to put a stop to the 
[80] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

enormous consumption of aspirin. The chemical 
engineer quoted above propounded this question 
in the bantering tone of one who took it for 
granted that aspirin was bound to win against all 
our efforts at Health Education. 

As he spoke, a flask containing a clear liquid 
was brought in and placed on his desk. Imme- 
diately his voice lost its bantering tone and be- 
came intensely serious. "Gaze at its clear con- 
tents," — he said, "absolutely soluble. Isn't that 
great, — soluble aspirin ! Now aspirin can be ad- 
ministered to children easily." 

This true story is a concrete reminder that 
drugs are made primarily for material gain to 
the producer. The drug manufacturer advertises 
his products more skillfully than even the cloth- 
ing or shoe manufacturer, and these unfortu- 
nately are too skillful for the health and happiness 
of women kind. The truly ignorant people are 
those who believe and have faith in the promises 
of misleading advertisements. 

What Health Education teaches us in regard 
to drugs is this: Some drugs are necessary in 
the event of illness. When an individual thinks 
she is ill enough to take a drug, she is ill enough 
to see a physician. No individual should pre- 
scribe drugs for herself; even a sick physician, 
if he is not mentally sick, is too wise to pre- 
scribe for himself. 



181] 



TALK IX 

Love and Health 



[83] 



IX 

LOVE AND HEALTH: THE FINAL 

SIGNBOARD FOR A REAL 

PERSONALITY 

Outline 

I. The Final Signboard for a Real Per- 

sonality. 

II. The Failure to Understand the True 

Meaning of Love. 

i. The love of the school-girl. 

2. Of the mother. 

3. Of the lover. 

4. Of the beloved. 

5. Self-love. 

III. The Meaning of Health Is Physical, 

Mental and Spiritual. 

IV. Honesty Essential to Health. 

V. The Exercising of All Faculties 
Makes for a Personality with 
Health and Pervading Love. 
Comparison of the human foot with the 
human soul. 

VI. Creative Work and Comradeship. 



[84] 



IX 



LOVE AND HEALTH: THE FINAL 

SIGNBOARD FOR A REAL 

PERSONALITY 

PROBABLY no sign-board along the way of 
life's climb is hailed with more joy than the 
one which points to love and health. Yet 
probably no direction is so much misunderstood. 
The true meaning of love in the making of per- 
sonality, in the building of health, and in all 
kinds of creative work is not sufficiently appre- 
ciated. Love and health are the warp and woof 
of life, — not superficial embroidery which we 
may frugally do without. 

While the most popular words in our language 
are love and health, the facts are too scarce in 
our actual lives. Love varies in meaning from 
individual to individual. To the sixteen year 
old girl, love means the gratification of a desire 
for affection, some one to hold her hand, some 
one to lean on, some one to take her side what- 
ever ignoble part she may play in life. To the 
mother, love means that emotion which prompts 
her through great sacrifices to protect her child 
from hardships, to ward off illnesses and troubles, 
to keep it innocent and dependent on herself. 
Love to the adult male often means possession 
[85] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

as long as the possessed gives pleasure, which 
usually means being looked up to for strength, 
courage, intellect and success. Love to the pos- 
sessed usually means relief from the world's 
hardships, security from unbiased criticisms, 
freedom from difficult decisions that all grown-up 
individuals should make for themselves. 

Though love to all these persons seems a dif- 
ferent something, there is the same fault to be 
seen throughout — the fault of self-love or self- 
indulgence. Such love somehow prompts one to 
lean upon others instead of letting one's own 
back-bone do the work, to be led by the hand 
instead of opening one's own eyes to see the 
way; or, it prompts one to guard jealously as a 
possession a soul which should be encouraged to 
strive for freedom. Those who read the word 
"love" on the sign-board with this faulty inter- 
pretation will hardly find the right path. 

As to the word "health/' many climbers up the 
road might read this direction also with the 
wrong interpretation. It would mean to them, 
perhaps, no illness, no pain, good organs through- 
out. But even this is not enough to be gen- 
uinely called health. For any human being who 
is going to reach a great height in the climb, 
health must mean much more than this. 

It means for the individual a personality whose 

body is directed and controlled by a healthy 

mind. This being the case, in such expressions 

of love as we have described above there is no 

[86] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

real health. Real health belongs to the out- 
going, not the ingrowing personality, to the inde- 
pendent character not the clinging vine, to the 
cooperative spirit not the greedy possessor. It 
can only be reached at its highest peak by way 
of the long and winding path of love which ever 
broadens with increasing age. Health is not 
something to which we are born and which we 
must hoard; it is something which we must at- 
tain through living and growing and under- 
standing and loving and serving. One may be 
born with fair, good, or poor physical health, 
but this is the least part of health in the broader 
sense. The greater the difficulties to overcome, 
the greater the conflicts in life, the greater the 
personality which has overcome the difficulty and 
resolved the conflict. 

The essential equipment for the highest climb 
is honesty. There can be no great health in a 
personality which is not honest, nor can there be 
much outgoing love or true service. A great 
personality knows that there can be no honesty 
in any relationship with other people nor even 
with God unless the individual is honest with 
himself as to his motives. The essential factor 
in his equipment of honesty is accepting himself 
as a reality, as a possibility for good or evil, in 
which he is not different from any other human 
being. 

This acceptance of oneself as one really is, 
this renunciation of the idealized view of self, 
[87] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

is the only entrance upon the true way of health. 
After this initial act of courage, the climb be- 
comes easier. By turning our tendencies and 
bents upward, we can free our lives from 
ignorance and fear, — the two forces which most 
destroy love and health in our personal lives. 
Each advancement made in such a climb 
strengthens for the next upward stretch, while 
occasional glimpses ahead of the glorious reali- 
ties of love and health release new energy for 
the farther climb. 

I think two illustrations of common occurrence 
will serve to show what is meant by conflict and 
turning tendencies upward. The illustrations are 
of the human foot. Children are born as a rule 
with perfect feet. Sometimes they are born with 
anything but perfect feet and we say that they 
have congenital flat-foot. Leaving the bad feet 
for the moment let us follow the growth of the 
good feet. There are the straight inner line, the 
anterior arch, and the posterior arch, all making 
for strength as well as grace. If the baby is 
allowed to go bare-foot and use his muscles, if 
the child is allowed to climb trees, walk the 
tight-rope and do all sorts of things which exer- 
cise the feet, they become stronger with use. If 
the child wears shoes with flexible soles and 
with a shape that follows the lines of the normal 
foot, his feet will retain their beauty and 
strength as long as he lives. On the other hand, 
if his foot is propped and protected by stays in 
[8S] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

the side of the shoes and by stiff soles that pre- 
vent all exercise of the foot muscles and par- 
ticularly if the foot is badly used as in toeing 
out, the arches of the foot will gradually break 
and its strength and beauty will gradually depart. 
By the time the individual has reached the age 
of thirty, he would be relying on outside sup- 
port for whatever strength might be necessary 
to carry him about his daily tasks. 

This contrast we see in everyday life. It illus- 
trates what happens in the case of personality. 
The child that is accepted by his mother for 
what he really is and is allowed to grow in his 
own way with gentle direction and supervision, 
who is helped over to independence wherever it 
is possible, who is later accepted by his teacher 
for what he is and helped to develop along his 
strongest and best lines, who is encouraged for 
the sake of his personality to fight for a strength- 
ening of the weaker parts, — such a boy will come 
to college already equipped with a reliance and 
strength which make possible his further growth 
into a free and strong personality. But the boy 
who has been protected and supported and led to 
rely upon mother and father for decisions at 
home will eventually reach college age with a 
formless or crippled personality far astray from 
the road which leads to real health and which 
he can only regain at the cost of the most severe 
and painful struggles. 

If we go back to the baby born with flat feet, 
[89] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

for him also the right education and develop- 
ment can accomplish much. If he is encouraged 
to use his toes, to use every kind of opportunity 
to exercise his feet, if he is instructed by a wise 
director in special exercises for his feet, if he is 
made to understand the value of certain kinds of 
support used temporarily until through exercise 
he can give the entire support with his muscles, 
he comes to adult life with a marvellously strong 
foot. 

And so it may also happen to the flat-footed 
soul. Emotional exercise under wise direction 
will do much for a personality which apparently 
started life weak. Lack of emotional exercise or 
emotional exercise under bad guidance may, on 
the other hand, mislead a good personality to 
stray into the depths of a canyon instead of seek- 
ing the mountain-top of health and love. 

No one arrives on this mountain-top without 
vigorous and ceaseless effort. We must be con- 
sistently brave enough to think face to face with 
ourselves daily; we must feel ourselves at one 
with other people, great and small, in play and 
other recreation; we must have work which per- 
mits the expression of personal ideals and en- 
courages the love of comrades. With this con- 
ception of exercise for the soul, the personality 
advances to a consciousness that there is no 
satisfactory life without health and love, — and 
that where health and love exist abundantly, 
there is everlasting life. 
[90] 



TALK X 
World Health 



[91] 



X 

WORLD HEALTH: THE VALUE OF 

HUMAN BEINGS IS ABOVE THAT 

OF MATERIAL THINGS 

Outline 

I. Introduction. 

Wealth rules the world; human beings 
valued in terms of material things. 

II. Overproduction of Human Beings Les- 
sens the Value of the Individual. 

III. Nature's Teaching in the Structure 

of the Human Body. 

1. Cooperation and usefulness — soul 

developing. 
2. Competition and efficiency — soul 

destroying and money gaining. 

IV. The Real Family — a Place for Growth 

into Independence. 

V. Schools of the Future to Educate for 
Health. 

VI. The Individual — a Creator, a Person- 
ality, a Part of the GREAT PER- 
SONALITY. 



[92] 



X 

WORLD HEALTH: THE VALUE OF 

HUMAN BEINGS IS ABOVE THAT 

OF MATERIAL THINGS 

THE way to world health leads us at the 
present time through great deserts of pain 
and distress. It directs us through swamps of 
decay, over streams of blood, among hosts of 
starving and dying. We must face all this and 
know something of the cause, before we can pick 
up, beyond the dismal waste, the first faint trails 
of a path which is destined to grow broader and 
broader, — before we can recognize the lost road 
of love which alone can lead us onward to world 
health. 

Though the world is ill enough now, it has 
been even more so in the past when children 
were sold by parents into bondage, or were killed 
for food in time of famine. This is the great 
fault of the world — a fault which has called 
down a great punishment: children have been 
viewed as property. In ancient times, they them- 
selves were bought and sold; now they have be- 
come merely the producers of that which may be 
bought and sold. Children are valued in dollars 
and pounds as prospective producers of wealth; 
they must be valued at priceless human lives for 
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TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

whose use and enjoyment the wealth of the world 
exists. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done 
it unto me." To regard children as property is 
the great offense against love; the world must 
purge itself of this offense before the great 
dream of world health can be realized. 

About one hundred and fifty years ago, Mal- 
thus, the political economist, wrote: "Wars and 
plagues are the terrible correctives of the re- 
dundance of mankind." Since Malthus wrote 
these words, science has almost put an end to 
the great plagues and their awful ravages. 
Wars, however, will continue as long as redund- 
ance is encouraged in one part of the world 
which reaches out for the material wealth of 
another part of the world. 

If we study the human body in its develop- 
ment, we find that life begins as a single fertil- 
ized cell which divides and redivides, until, by a 
process of elaboration, the individual, made up 
of a vast complexity of cells, is arrived at. 
Cooperation and mutual balance among the 
various organs make for the health and well- 
being of the individual. If one part of the body 
becomes weak, — say the right lung, — there is 
compensation in the other parts of the body, in 
the left lung, for instance. The right kidney 
does more than half of the excreting work for 
the body if the left kidney becomes damaged. 

Can we not conceive of the individual as being 
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TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

to the world what the cell is to the individual, 
and can we not conceive of the nations as being 
to the world what the organs or systems of 
organs are to the individual? If this compari- 
son holds, the health of the world depends not 
on competition and mutual struggle, but on 
cooperation of the parts for the good of the 
whole, or for the good of the fundamental unit, 
which makes for the good of the whole. In the 
past, we have looked upon human beings as 
material to be valued in dollars or pounds, or in 
fighting units for the gain of dollars or pounds. 
The more such units were born into the world, 
the more the prospective wealth which could be 
produced or taken by force. The world is sick 
with this valuation of human beings and the 
time has come for diagnosis and a program for 
real health. In the talk on "Love and Health" 
we saw that the health of the individual depends 
on his self-expression, his growth in love or the 
development of the life of the soul. If we value 
world health, we will help to guard the entrance 
into the world by not encouraging the bringing 
of children into it who can never have a chance 
to develop happily or grow to have self-expres- 
sion in work. We will care too much to let a 
soul come into the world who is not wanted and 
who consequently cannot become a healthy unit 
in a healthy world body. 

The family is essential for the development of 
the individual, especially his emotional develop- 
[95] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

ment, and hence marriage is essential. Here in 
the family is furnished a field where the child's 
impulses and emotions may strike their roots 
and at the same time take their upward trend. 
In the past the family has not furnished a suffi- 
ciently liberating environment for the developing, 
experimenting child, but has tended to restrict 
and repress him on all sides, usually trying to 
keep him young and consequently in a position 
of inferiority. 

In the healthy world the father and mother 
will be developing a love which will make 
them comrades unto the end, and love between 
parents will be recognized as essential for the 
health of the child. In the child of the ideal 
family the emotions and the intellect will develop 
hand in hand; the new commandment set before 
him will not be "control your desires," but "love 
to the fullest." As age and experience are added, 
growth in love and fellowship will appear as the 
true offspring of the years. 

In a world of health the schools of the past, 
which existed to ignore the development of the 
emotions and to develop the intellectual side 
alone, will no longer find a place. The school 
of the future will take up the education of youth 
where the family begins to lay it down, gradually 
supplementing the place of the parents and fur- 
nishing a broader field outside of the home for 
that inner urge in every normal being to extend 
his range and to express himself. 

[96] 



TEN TALKS TO GIRLS ON HEALTH 

When the individual is educated for health he 
will acquire, first in the family and later in the 
school, an understanding of the technique of 
handling himself. He will have learned the 
fundamental habit of a healthy emotional life — 
the habit of facing and deciding one's conflicts 
as they arise and not of prolonging them with 
all their disintegrating consequences to charac- 
ter throughout long periods of time. 

With this equipment he is ready for life — not 
merely a life of work, but a life of creativeness. 
In fact, he has already entered into a life of 
health. His work, which is a part of his self- 
expression, is not drudgery; it is life. He will 
not work for what he gets out of it, but for 
what he can put into it, and thereby produce for 
the good of others. Through his work he be- 
comes a creator. Like his work, his play and 
recreation will also make for the onward and 
upward development of the emotions. His medi- 
tations — and there will always be time for medi- 
tations — will bring him to a realization of his 
lessening need to be separate from all and of 
his growing need to feel himself a part of the 
great living and creating force. 

Thus through the health of the soul of the 
individual we cross to the goal of the health of 
the world made up of such individuals. 



[97] 



THE HEALTH LIBRARY 

Proceedings of the International Conference of 
Women Physicians: 1520, The Womans Press, 
New York. 

Vol. I General Problems of Health. 
II Industrial Health. 

III The Health of the Child. 

IV Moral Codes and Personality. 

V Adaptation of the Individual to Life. 
VI Conservation of Health of Women in 
Marriage. 

Angell, Emmet, Play, 1918, Little, Brown, Boston. 
Fisher, Irving, and Fisk, Eugene L., How to Live, 

1919, Funk, Wagnalls, New York. 
Lee, Joseph, Play in Education, 1918, Macmillan, 

New York. 
Mosher, Clelia D., Health and the Woman Move- 

ment, 1918, The Womans Press, New York. 
Tagore, Rabindranath, Personality, 1917, Macmillan, 

New York. 
White, William A., Principles of Mental Hygiene, 

1917, Macmillan, New York. 

The following books, pamphlets, etc., contain prac- 
tical working plans for individual health-building: 

Individual Health Inventory, 1921, The Womans 
Press, New York. 

Individual Exeriise Cards, Posters, etc., The Wo- 
mans Press, New York. 

Bancroft, Jessie, Games for Playground, Home, 
School and Gymnasium, 1919, Macmillan, New 
York. 

Bolton, Florence, Exercise for Women, 1914, Funk, 
Wagnalls, New York. 
[98] 



Detroit Public Schools, Manual of Public Instruc- 
tion, 1920, Detroit. 

Geister, Edna, Ice-Breakers, 1920', The Womans 
Press, New York. 

Lusk, Graham, Food in War Time, 1918, Saunders, 
Philadelphia. 

MaoCullum, E. V., and Simmonds, Nina, The Amer- 
ican Home Diet, 1920, F. C. Matthews, Detroit. 

Pearl and Brown, Health by Stunts, 1919, Macmil- 
lan, New York. 

Rose, Mary S., Feeding the Family, 1916, Macmil- 
lan, New York. 

Note — It is recommended that each Association, 
Club, or other Group own The Proceedings of the 
International Conference of Women Physicians. 



[99] 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 169 291 3 



